hot auto review

High-end car companies like to brag that they are all about the relentless pursuit of perfection. If, rather than luxury drivers, they were talking about antiseptically clean musclecars that could eclipse the quarter-mile in 8 seconds or better, then cars like Darren Tedder's '71 'Cuda would be sitting in the showrooms. This 'Cuda, which finished Third at HOT ROD's '06 Pump Gas Drags(tm), is the product of Darren's own unremitting quest for perfection.

An obsession over details certainly comes in handy for building cars, but Darren's was honed in his career in underwater production, where sweating the details is absolutely vital. Darren's life and the lives of those who work with him rely upon every little thing being triple-checked, since there's often not room for slip-ups in front of the sea-dwelling cast. Ever watch those shows on nature channels that appear impossibly close to circling sharks with no cage in sight? That's the kind of filming Darren specializes in. On top of that, he's always been a fan of underwater cave exploration, which is in itself an extremely risky hobby. Doesn't really sound like he needs more excitement in his life, does it?

Though he had always had good fortune, Darren knew a few people who had not been so lucky. Perhaps that put a chink in his confidence, but eventually the risk started to look less appealing and Darren sought to turn his interest toward something not as fate-tempting. As a lifelong gearhead, the choice for filling the void was an easy one; he needed a new project car.

Prior to his underwater fixation, Darren had a string of GM musclecars including a Chevelle of every year up till '72, but this time he decided to dabble in Mopars and set his sights on a 'Cuda. Unfortunately he made that decision after the prices of all things Mopar had already begun to spiral upwards, so his $20K investment was little more than a basket case '71 'Cuda rife with questionable re-engineering and modifications. At least it came with a trailer . . . with four flat tires.

Though he'd hoped for a car with a little more substance, Darren knew he'd end up replacing nearly everything before the car was up to his expectations. Plus, with the final product he had in mind, there wasn't much use for stock components anyway. One fortunate (if you could call it that) part of the 'Cuda's derelict condition was that the rear had already been hacked for wheeltubs, but the job was pretty butch so Darren didn't flinch before sliding down his shield to begin cutting to make room for a set of monster Hoosiers.

As the saying goes, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself, and that's doubly true when you're a perfectionist. Darren knew the only way he'd be able to assure himself that the engine was built to his exacting specifications and that the 'Cuda earned its fat tires was to build a new Hemi from scratch himself. For the pump gas monster he had in mind, that's no easy task unless you've got one well-equipped garage. Lucky for Darren, he has good friends who do, over at Engine Systems in Tucker, Georgia. Though they mostly specialize in big-inch Fords, Darren picked their brains while assembling the stroked Keith Black-based Hemi. With the same meticulousness he took in measuring the correct gas ratios for his dive tanks, Darren measured and remeasured every clearance and fit every part to the nth degree. On the dyno he had the heads off no less than five times, adjusting gasket thickness and chamber volume to optimize horsepower and quench while still staying pump gas friendly, and eventually arrived at 1,032 hp and 817 lb-ft of torque. Extensive time and contemplation were also put into the oiling system to eliminate heat and maintain enough oil on the valvetrain to keep it alive on the street.

With the awesome power numbers belted out by the massaged Hemi, the 'Cuda's huge rear tires easily put the rear bumper on the pavement, so Darren adjusted and readjusted the suspension and even pulled 10 degrees of timing to dial in the launch. Patient trial and error eventually rewarded him with an 8.87 at 152.8 mph with outstanding 1.28 60-foot times. Of course all that hard work was for naught when he was accepted to HOT ROD's Pump Gas Drags(tm) in '06. The 12.50 tire limit was a thorn in Darren's side, since he ultimately had to rethink the rear suspension, swap to a Powerglide, and change the gearing several times to get back the traction and control lost with the smaller tires. "It was absolutely undriveable on the small tire at first," Darren says. "I was a nervous wreck trying to get the car ready before the Pump Gas Drags(tm), and there were some really close calls during the testing. I was still working out the kinks right up until the race and I still wasn't really satisfied. Actually I didn't get much sleep the night before the race because I was up checking everything-adjusting rockers, changing oil, pulling the trans pan, and checking the nitrous system. I finally went to bed at about 5 a.m."

Despite his lack of contentment with the 'Cuda, by the time Darren got it to Memphis Motorsports Park the car was back running consistent 8.90s with 1.45 60-foot times, resulting in a PGD best of 8.914 at 153.77 and a Third Place finish. That's certainly no weak showing, but Darren was a bit frustrated since he knew there were quicker passes in the car. Since then, with a little more fine-tuning, he's returned his 60-foot times into the mid 1.20s.

But that's still not quite good enough for Darren. Currently he's working on a new no-limit 604ci Hemi with Stage V Engineering's Millennium heads that could easily require an upgrade in his rollcage to Funny Car status should Darren decide to run it out the back door. There's no plan to lose the street car appeal, however, and once the wraps come off Darren's new and improved bigger Hemi, he plans to bring the 'Cuda on a future HOT ROD Drag Week(r) to challenge the current reigning Mopar of Eddie Miller-even if he has to pop a Valium to cope with a filthy 'Cuda for a week.

Quick Inspection: '71 Plymouth 'Cuda Darren Tedder
* Social Circle, GA

Powertrain
Engine: A Callies crank with a 4.50-inch stroke helps the Keith Black Hemi displace 572 ci, and 7.100-inch GRP rods sling lightened CP 12.0:1 pistons with Akerly and Childs rings. Up top, Stage V Engineering race heads flow an astounding 510-cfm intake and 308-cfm exhaust at 28 inches with the help of 2.4- and 1.9-inch titanium valves. A Crane Cams solid roller with 0.785/0.760 lift with 284/286 duration at 0.050 on a 112-degree LSA pushes Crane lifters and Mikronite-treated T&D Barton roller rockers with 1.7:1 and 1.6:1 ratios. The 13-quart oil system is fed by a Keith Black blown alcohol pump and uses spray bars to bathe the valvesprings. The beast is fed by two Pro Systems Dominators, and a 175hp shot from Nitrous Supply was added before PGD for a bit of insurance.
Power: On the dyno, obsession over detail rewarded Darren with a reliable 1,032 hp at 7,200 rpm and 817 lb-ft of torque at 5,800 rpm, off the fence.Transmission: A JW Ultraglide built by Sid Neal with a 9.5-inch converter yields about 4,800-rpm stall.Rearend: A custom 9-inch by Lake Point Tube Chassis uses a Strange Ultra case with lightened 4.10 gears, a lightened Mark Williams spool, and 40-spline Mark Williams axles.

Chassis
Suspension: A bolt-in coilover conversion from RMS AlterKtion with 400-pound springs and AFCO double-adjustable shocks with an RMS crossmember takes up the front, while a custom four-link rear with an antiroll bar uses 130-pound Koni double-adjustable coilovers.
Brakes: Slotted Strange Engineering disc brakes are fed pressure from a Wilwood master cylinder. The proportioning valve and line-lock are also Wilwood items.
Wheels: Weld Racing Aluma Star wheels measure 15x3.5 up front with a 2.75-inch backspace; there are massive 15x15 Weld Pro Stars in the rear with a 7.5-inch backspace.
Tires: A pair of 28x7.50 Mickey Thompson Sportsmans provide just enough streetable meat up front, while 15x33x18.5 Hoosier Quick Time Pros stick the rear to the track. A set of DOT-approved M/Ts are used for street duty.

Style
Body: Though nothing in the drivetrain is sacred, Darren wanted the exterior of the car to look like a 'Cuda. So the body remains stock, with all appropriate emblems, except for minor wheelwell enlargement in the rear.Paint: A beautiful coat of PPG's Plum Crazy Purple was laid down by Keith Martins at Cruisin' Classics in Snellville, Georgia.
Interior: Though it retains very proper 'Cuda feel, there's almost nothing stock in the Phillip Allen-crafted interior other than the Rim-Blo wheel and the dashpad, due to the number of safety and chassis modifications. The seats are aluminum Kirkey pieces with Simpson belts, and the gauges are from Auto Meter.

They have patina galore, but don't call these three cars rat rods. Onlyone can legitimately be considered a street rod, and the tattoo andgreased hair set take exception to the term "rat" anyway. "Rusto rod"was beaten to death in the '80s and '90s, so we'll turn a deaf ear tothat suggestion too. I guess you could call them beaters, and theirowners probably wouldn't have a problem with that, but a beater conjuresimages of a rusty hulk broken down on the side of the road with OldFaithful launching through the slack-jawed, open hood. These cars arereliable. How 'bout instead of sticking a label on them, we just callthem what they are, which is a trio of really neat, perfectly driveable,home-crafted hot rods built for the sole purpose of having something funto drive. And if it's fast or at least has some semblance of brutality,so much the better.

So it is with Chad Reynolds' '56 Chevy wagon, Steve Mohr's '53Studebaker Champion, and Bruce Hall's '32 Ford three-window, all provenreliable on this year's Power Tour(TM). They also turned out to be someof the most popular cars on the entire Tour. A lot of folks will stillwant to label these cars rat rods, but other than the patina'd skins,you couldn't find three more different types of hot rods built by threedifferent types of people. We have a Tri-Five wagon built by a youngdrag racer from Texas, a stay-at-home dad with a '53 Studebaker designedas a dual-purpose street/land speed car, and a street rodder with an olddrag race Deuce three-window that has resumed life on the street. Threedifferent guys with three different cars, all on the same road andhaving more fun than most.

Chad Reynolds is a young guy who owns Slightly Wicked Kustoms, a hot rodshop in Allen, Texas, on the outskirts of Dallas. He has his own hotrods and drag cars and builds a variety of street machines and racetrucks, so he's a certified gearhead. One day, Chad was in the shoplooking at two cars he had just stumbled upon, a beat-up '56 Chevy wagonhe found in a barn and a rear-ended '94 Cop Caprice bought at auction. Alittle daydreaming followed by some measuring told him what to do, andbefore long the wagon body was welded to the complete chassis, floorpan,and running gear of the Caprice. Air Ride bags replace the coil springsso the car can be set to full frame-scrape for profiling then lifted toclear driveway ramps and bigger road debris. After selling the unusedstuff from both cars, he had less than a grand in the whole car, butthen it sat for about four years while other projects took priority.

Chad and his pals had planned on going on this year's Power Tour(TM),but when the other guys called and said they couldn't take their cars,he looked over at the wagon and realized what he had to do. "Peoplethought I was nuts because it was two months before the Power Tour(TM)and the car had no bumpers, core support, seats, steering column,steering wheel, or wiring at all." He did a quickie wiring job(including a Sony stereo that cost more than he paid for the body--yougotta have tunes), hooked up the fuel-injection harness and fuel lines,cobbled together the Air Ride system, and then put it up on jackstandsand ran it through the gears to make sure the transmission still worked.The car made its maiden voyage at 11:30 Thursday night before the Tour."We drove it a total of two miles and 50 years worth of crap fell out ofthe headliner. I did a burnout in front of the shop, tested thebrakes--the four-wheel-disc cop-car brakes work really well, by theway--aimed the headlights, and duct taped some holes and seams. My momcut up some pieces of indoor-outdoor carpet so my friends would havesomething to put their feet on. I drove it home, took a shower, pickedup my friend Kris and we pulled out of the driveway at 1:30 a.m. Fridaymorning, headed for Chicago. We had to be there by 8:30 Friday night topick up my friend Harley, who was flying in from California."

About 2,600 miles later and only a few small concerns that turned outnot to be problems at all, the car was still running like a top and washeaded back home to Dallas from Kissimmee, Florida. Chad says, "Therewere a good number of people who didn't think it would make it, but thiscar is dead-nuts reliable. The chassis only has 71,000 miles on itincluding the 4,000 from Power Tour(TM), and I drive it at least fourdays a week. The thing does a burnout a day, and I've even taken it tothe dragstrip a few times."

The original plan was actually to make it a nice car, but with PowerTour(TM) coming, Chad said what the hell. "This car was just mocked upand wasn't even supposed to be on the Tour. We weren't supposed to bedriving it. It was supposed to get the body all done, but this is how weroll so we're here. And response to it has been absolutely insane."It'll probably eventually get turned into a nice car, which is almosttoo bad. Meanwhile, look for it at HOT ROD Drag Week.

Steve Mohr, 39, took a different approach to his '53 Studebaker. Thefirst part of the car he owned was the blower, a 6-71 he dug out of atruck salvage yard back when he was an airplane mechanic in the AirForce. He didn't even have a car when he bought it and couldn't affordone after, so it became an ornament for his barracks dresser and theinspiration for the car that he would someday build.

Eventually, Steve got around to using the blower, sticking it on a 454with stock heads and 7.8:1 compression and cramming it all in aChevelle, then eventually into a Vega. The Vega ran 10.40s at 129 and hebracket-raced it all the time, but he really wanted to go land speedracing. Steve says, "I moved to Atlanta in 1994 and became aware of theEast Coast Timing Association (ECTA) and met Keith Turk. Right away Istarted looking for a land speed car." He wanted to build a car thatcould both drive on the street and also run at the ECTA's Maxton eventand also at Bonneville, and he had an inclination for Studebakers, sincethey were pre-smog, had swoopy lines for aero slipperiness, and wereroomy enough to fit his three daughters in the back seat. He eventuallyfound the '53 and bought it for $1,300. "It only had 90,000 miles on itwhen the original engine blew up in 1973, and it had sat ever sincethen," says Steve. "When I bought it, it looked exactly like it doesnow, except for the stance and the blower."

When his job as an aircraft mechanic for Northwest dried up after thecarrier pulled out of Atlanta, Steve and his wife Alicia decided that hewould stay at home and raise the girls, and that meant the car would sitfor a while. Then, in October 2004, he decided the time was right tobuild it. "I told my wife, 'I'm starting on the Stude now, and I'm notstopping until it's done and going on the Power Tour(TM) next year.'"

He made it, joining us at the Nashville stop with his younger brotherBill riding shotgun. The car now has a Fat Man Fabrications frontsubframe with Mustang II suspension, adapted by Chad Blotschke.Replacement leaf springs attach a 3.23:1-geared Chrysler 83/4 rearendfrom a '69 Charger, but they'll soon be replaced with a four-link sincethe leaves flop around under the Rat motor's abuse. The wheels are 15x7steelies from a Chrysler Fifth Avenue that he paid $3.44 apiece for fromhis local junkyard. Keith Turk helped him wire the car with a Painlesskit, and Steve himself freshened the motor and dropped it in the car.The valve covers are vintage Mickey Thompson's from a buddy's '60s-eraStock Car. Continuing the no-buck theme, instead of popping for a $40aftermarket boost gauge, Steve found two 15-psi pressure gauges at anindustrial-supply store for $4 each and mounted them to the back of theblower. "They work fine. They're not lit, but if you need to see 'em atnight you can just shine a light on them."

What about the patina? Steve says, "I'm kind of torn now. I hadconcocted a two-tone primer job, with black on the bottom fading up togray on top, and with a thin green flame down the side. But now thatI've gotten the car on the road I'm getting people telling me to leaveit alone. Patina's only there once, so you have to leave it." Anotherguy told him that the lazy man's solution is to leave it alone and waitfor the rat rod trend to die down, then paint it. Steve says, "I'mdetermined that it'll never be beautiful because beautiful cars are sucha liability. One good rock chip on the roof is all it takes."

And this car is destined to get lots of rock chips, since it's totallyroad-worthy. Since it was barely finished in time for Power Tour(TM),Steve had a few small heating issues that were traced to a bad wirecrimp for the cooling fans, but once that was fixed it never got hotagain. And with the highway gears and a Gear Vendors overdrive bolted tothe TH400 trans (with a tight 13-inch converter), the car got an averageof 12 mpg on the Power Tour(TM) and knocked down a best-tank of 14 mpg.Remember, that's with two Edelbrock four-barrels on a 6-71-blown 454.And this car ain't no slowpoke, either, since it's the same basiccombination that was running deep 10s in his not-that-much-lighter Vega.The ultimate goal is to leave it a street car but also run at the MaxtonMile, which will require some saving to afford the safety equipment itstill needs, but with Turk urging him on, we're sure it'll happen.

Bruce Hall has the legit rat rod of the group, but his is nofiberglass-bodied street rod done up to look the part of the pompadourset. Nope, this '32 three-window spent the better part of its life as ahard-core drag car from the '50s and '60s, and it still has thesquare-tube rollbar to prove it.

You may have seen Bruce's name before, since he painted the HOT ROD Spl.Camaro owned by Keith and Tonya Turk and driven by our own Freiburger toa record on the Bonneville Salt Flats. You've already seen the car,too--but only a portion of it in the November '04 issue's Tech sectionTable of Contents (page 97). Bruce owns Bruce's Rods & Customs inDothan, Alabama, and joined us on the leg of the Power Tour(TM) thatwent through his state.

Bruce bought the car 15 years ago from his friend Chuck Haney in PanamaCity, Florida. Bruce had a 'glass '32 body and was looking for someparts. Talking to Chuck led him to the old drag car, which had beensitting in a shed behind a machine shop since 1968. He took theall-steel original home and then stuck it in his body shop for the nextdecade and a half not sure what to do with it. "It sat there for yearsand I got tired of looking at it, so I figured I oughta throw this thingtogether," Bruce says. He left the body and interior alone, lifting itoff the original chassis and dropping it over a new chassis that hisshop built. It's got a 9-inch rear and a Pete & Jakes' four-bar frontsuspension, and it works just fine that way, thank you very much.

A 350 small-block Chevy with three deuces and open homemade headers withinserts to try and keep the cackle down thunder it down the road, andother than that it's pretty much just like it was when he found it. Inan age when brand-new fiberglass street rods are carefully built and"patina painted" to fit the rat rod trend, the only faux part of Bruce's'32 is the lettering on the door, carefully done to look like it's beenthere since the '60s. The interior is even original and basicallyuntouched.

His busy street rod business kept him from driving more than a leg ofthe Tour, but Bruce says he puts about 10,000 miles a year on the coupe,and based on the road grime and the carbon on the doors from theheaders, we'll buy that. The car ran perfectly the whole day wecorralled it for the cameras, and the torrential downpour we forced himto drive through, window-less, only cooled things off. He drove the carto a rod show in Louisville and back and won Best Hot Rod at theDixiefied show in Atlanta last year, so the car gets its respect, butthe average person on the street still regularly asks when he plans onfinishing it. "People ask if it's a work in progress. No, it's not.That's the way I like the car and I'm going to leave it alone. I'mbuilding a '34 right now that I'll make into a nice car, but this one'sstaying like it is."

Whatever you think of the whole rat rod "trend" (for lack of a betterword), there's no denying that all three of these cars are very cool, iffor no other reason than that they can draw a crowd and createconversation while effortlessly turning the odometer for as long as theyneed to.

This is special. When this project was conceived, there was only one running '08 Dodge Challenger prototype in the whole world. And as you can guess, it has been pretty busy doing the car-show scene and hauling journalists around. Mopar Performance Parts wanted a Challenger, too. A smash hit when it was introduced on the floor of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last winter, the Challenger was the perfect vehicle to showcase Mopar's new 392 Hemi crate engines and to fly the flag for Chrysler performance at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The Mopar people just couldn't wait until 2008 like the rest of us will have to, so they built another new Challenger, from scratch, and Hot Rod was there to look in on the construction.

Chrysler's SkunkWerks team, a loose-knit group made up of employees from various departments and led by Vice President of Design Ralph Gilles, began by working up special paint and style treatments for the project. "There is so much creativity in this team," Gilles said. "A lot of these guys are hot rodders by nature. They bring, in some cases, 30 years of hot-rod experience to the project." One early rendering, a Pro Streeter done up in bright silver and flat black, soon evolved into an all-out tribute to Chrysler's early Super Stock and Pro Stock racers. Slicks, wheelie bars, and a big fat hoodscoop testified that the Challenger meant business, while red, white, and blue panel graphics evoked the famous Dick Landy, Ramchargers, and Color Me Gone Mopar Hemis of the '60s. The Dodge Challenger Super Stock Concept had taken form, and it was a form every hot rodder could recognize. Suddenly, it's 1970 going on 2008.

Using digital code generated by the Chrysler design studios, Metalcrafters of Fountain Valley, California, constructed a duplicate prototype Challenger body in fiberglass and CFRP (carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic). But in this stage, it was a bare shell, an exoskeleton, rather like a Funny Car body or a plastic kit model. To turn the shell into a real car, the crew at Vehicle Build Shop Services and the Experimental Metal Shop at the Chrysler Technical Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan, went to work.

They kicked off the job by pulling a brand-new, perfectly good Inferno Red Dodge Magnum 6.1L SRT8 out of inventory and then-oh, the horror-hacking it to pieces for its cowl and floorpan. The method seems wasteful, but actually it was far cheaper and quicker than tracking down all the hundreds of required components individually in the DCX global parts system. With 4 inches sectioned from the rear passenger floor to shorten the wheelbase from 120 inches to 116, the former Magnum wagon's unibody became the platform for the new Challenger.

The doors, hood, decklid surround rings, and interior panels all had to be hand-fabricated in 19-gauge steel and then bonded to the outer shell to make the Challenger look and function like a real production car. The prototype shop crew, all of them proud UAW skilled tradesmen, also made all the necessary tooling and then constructed the grille, dash, and interior panels, along with the molded front and rear lamp assemblies and "glass" (it's actually Lexan). To round out the neo-retro-futuristic approach to custom-car construction, computer-aided design (CAD) was used to create a six-point, 1.5-inch mild steel rollcage and to devise mounting boxes in the late-model floorpan to replace the IRS with a pair of good ol' Mopar Super Stock leaf springs and a Dana 60 rear axle. Now that's New Old School.

After body finishing and the aforementioned red, white, and blue paint, the roller was sent to Mike Pustelny Race Cars in Almont, Michigan, up in the tall sticks north of Detroit. There, the veteran Super Stock racer and chassis builder performed all the plumbing, wiring, and assembly. Mark Williams axles and Mopar 4.88s and a Sure Grip went into the Dana 60, while the stock Magnum front struts were converted to adjustable coilovers using hardware from QA1. Pustelny also installed Mark Williams disc brakes all around and American Racing Pro Series wheels with bead-lock rims on the rear. The bucket seats are Dodge cop-car units with custom-embroidered covers by Katzkin. Summit Racing Equipment, which carries the full Mopar Performance Parts line in its catalog, expedited the build process with regular shipments of big boxes of stuff, including a full complement of Mopar gauges and Simpson safety equipment.

Of course, the centerpiece of the Challenger Super Stock Concept-what the entire project is all about, really-is Mopar's new 392 Hemi crate engine. With a 4.055-inch bore and 3.795-inch stroke, the 392 begins as a stroker version of the 6.1L V-8 used in the SRT8. The heads are CNC-ported aluminum dual-plug castings, while the cam is a hydraulic roller with advertised duration of 279/285 degrees and 0.584/ 0.552-inch lift. With sequential fuel injection, this 392 (PN P5253605) is rated at 525 hp and 510 lb-ft of torque. There are two other versions offered: a single-carb 540hp model (P5153604) and a long-block-only (P5153603). For this car, the 392 was mated to a 904 TorqueFlite with an electronic valvebody, dialed in by legendary Hemi racer and retired Chrysler engineer, Ron Mancini.

There is a second, more serious purpose behind the Mopar Challenger. The car was also built as a testbed to validate various drivetrain combinations and to serve as proof of concept for a purpose-built, limited-production factory Super Stock racer in the mold of the '68 Dodge Dart and Plymouth Barracuda Hemi lightweight cars. The car and concept have been shopped around to several drag-racing sanctioning bodies, and while it's too early for any announcements just yet, "I can tell you the interest is definitely there," said Jon Clark of Mopar Performance Parts. "With all the equity and heritage of the 1968 Hemi cars, we would be fools not to stand on their shoulders with this car." If the plan flies, you could see a limited run of factory-homologated Super Stock Challengers with Hemi crate engines coming soon to a dragstrip near you.

The Challenger made a big splash in Vegas in its public debut at SEMA. Right after the show, it was trailered (show car, no VIN, can't be street-driven, fuhgetaboutit) out to the edge of town where editors Kinnan and Freiburger gave it a thorough thrashing . . . er, testing. The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was booked up, so they couldn't obtain any quarter-mile results, but they were able to drive the Challenger around, run it up through the gears a few times, and do several big, smoky burnouts. And then Freiburger broke the nearly priceless, handbuilt, factory concept car. Kinnan said it was probably nothing serious

Inspirations
Some of you may be too young or too bong-addled to recall the drag cars of the early '70s that inspired the stance and graphic element on the new '08 Mopar Super Stocker. The red, white, and blue treatment immediately recalls the string of Sox & Martin cars of the day, but all of those were Plymouths. The flag-waving treatment on Dodges was found on Rod Shop cars and on Dick Landy's and Larry Huff's '72 Pro Stockers, but the general retro vibe is exhibited on all these '70-'72 Challengers that we dug up in the HOT ROD archives. -David Freiburger HRM